Tonight
Oct 28 - Oct 29
- -3 °C
100 percent cloud cover - -3 °C96 percent cloud cover
- -4 °C
72 percent cloud cover
Northern Lights Forecast for Calgary
Calgary, Alberta, Canada
51°2′40.9″N ⋅ 114°4′18.8″W
Aurora data last updated at
Current local time:
Can you see the Northern Lights in Calgary tonight?
No significant aurora activity is expected in Calgary over the next 24 hours. Sky will be dark from 7:30 PM to 7:10 AM local time. Cloud cover around that time looks overcast at around 100%.
Aurora Forecast for Calgary
Today at 12:00 PM
No activity
Cloud Cover:100%
Aurora activity
High clouds
Middle clouds
Low clouds
Fog
Aurora activity
High clouds
Middle clouds
Low clouds
Fog
Hourly aurora forecast for Calgary
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3-Night Weather Forecast for Calgary
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Tomorrow night
Oct 29 - Oct 30
- -2 °C
100 percent cloud cover - -2 °C94 percent cloud cover
- -2 °C100 percent cloud cover
Friday night
Oct 30 - Oct 31
- -0 °C71 percent cloud cover
- -2 °C88 percent cloud cover
Sun & Moon
Sunset
Sunrise
Dark from 07:30 PM to 07:10 AM (11 h 40 min)
Current Moon
Waning Gibbous
91% illumination
Refresh to load today's sun path.
Long-Term Aurora Forecast for Calgary
| Mon | Tue | Wed | Thu | Fri | Sat | Sun |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Wednesday, October 28, 2026. Today. No aurora activity. Aurora score 0 out of 10. Waning gibbous, 92% illumination | Thursday, October 29, 2026. No aurora activity. Aurora score 0 out of 10. Waning gibbous, 85% illumination | Friday, October 30, 2026. No aurora activity. Aurora score 0 out of 10. Waning gibbous, 76% illumination | Saturday, October 31, 2026. Low aurora activity. Aurora score 1 out of 10. Last quarter, 65% illumination | Sunday, November 1, 2026. Low aurora activity. Aurora score 1 out of 10. Last quarter, 54% illumination | ||
Monday, November 2, 2026. No aurora activity. Aurora score 0 out of 10. Last quarter, 43% illumination | Tuesday, November 3, 2026. No aurora activity. Aurora score 0 out of 10. Last quarter, 32% illumination | Wednesday, November 4, 2026. No aurora activity. Aurora score 0 out of 10. Waning crescent, 23% illumination | Thursday, November 5, 2026. No aurora activity. Aurora score 0 out of 10. Waning crescent, 14% illumination | Friday, November 6, 2026. No aurora activity. Aurora score 0 out of 10. Waning crescent, 8% illumination | Saturday, November 7, 2026. No aurora activity. Aurora score 0 out of 10. New moon, 3% illumination | Sunday, November 8, 2026. No aurora activity. Aurora score 0 out of 10. New moon, 1% illumination |
Monday, November 9, 2026. No aurora activity. Aurora score 0 out of 10. New moon, 0% illumination | Tuesday, November 10, 2026. No aurora activity. Aurora score 0 out of 10. New moon, 2% illumination | Wednesday, November 11, 2026. No aurora activity. Aurora score 0 out of 10. Waxing crescent, 5% illumination | Thursday, November 12, 2026. No aurora activity. Aurora score 0 out of 10. Waxing crescent, 10% illumination | Friday, November 13, 2026. No aurora activity. Aurora score 0 out of 10. Waxing crescent, 16% illumination | Saturday, November 14, 2026. No aurora activity. Aurora score 0 out of 10. Waxing crescent, 23% illumination | Sunday, November 15, 2026. No aurora activity. Aurora score 0 out of 10. First quarter, 32% illumination |
Monday, November 16, 2026. No aurora activity. Aurora score 0 out of 10. First quarter, 41% illumination | Tuesday, November 17, 2026. Low aurora activity. Aurora score 1 out of 10. First quarter, 50% illumination | Wednesday, November 18, 2026. Low aurora activity. Aurora score 1 out of 10. First quarter, 60% illumination | Thursday, November 19, 2026. No aurora activity. Aurora score 0 out of 10. Waxing gibbous, 70% illumination | Friday, November 20, 2026. No aurora activity. Aurora score 0 out of 10. Waxing gibbous, 79% illumination | Saturday, November 21, 2026. No aurora activity. Aurora score 0 out of 10. Waxing gibbous, 87% illumination | Sunday, November 22, 2026. No aurora activity. Aurora score 0 out of 10. Waxing gibbous, 94% illumination |
Monday, November 23, 2026. No aurora activity. Aurora score 0 out of 10. Full moon, 98% illumination | Tuesday, November 24, 2026. No aurora activity. Aurora score 0 out of 10. Full moon, 100% illumination |
LowAurora ActivityHigh
Best Time to See the Northern Lights in Calgary
The nights in Calgary are dark all year. The aurora is rare in Calgary: your best chances are in September and October.
- Dark hours
- Chance of aurora
Long-term averages for clear nights, since 1985. Geomagnetic data: GFZ, CC BY 4.0
Every night of 2026 in Calgary, January at the top: how long it's dark, and the chance of aurora on a clear night.
Northern Lights in Calgary
Calgary is a city of 1.3 million at 51°N, on the prairie about 80 km east of the Rocky Mountain front ranges and 280 km south of Edmonton. The aurora here needs a geomagnetic storm: a G1 minor storm for a glow or a low arc in the north, closer to G3 strong before colour climbs overhead. In Calgary’s favour is the dry air, about 2,400 hours of sunshine a year, so a storm night has a fair chance of a clear sky.
Nose Hill Park and the city glow
Inside the city, Nose Hill Park in the north-west is 11 km² of open grassland 80 to 180 m above downtown, so the horizon is clear of buildings. The city glow is all around it, though, and it only works for a bright display. When a storm is big enough, people have posted photos taken inside Calgary, and on a camera in night mode the colour comes through where the eye sees a grey sky. See how to photograph the aurora with an iPhone.
Airdrie, Cochrane and the Drumheller badlands
For anything fainter, drive out. The farmland north and north-west of the city towards Airdrie and Cochrane gets dark within half an hour and has a flat northern horizon. Drumheller and the Red Deer River badlands are 110 km north-east, and photos have been taken there in the big storms too.
STEVE and the Alberta Aurora Chasers
Live sightings around Calgary are posted in the Alberta Aurora Chasers group on Facebook. Members kept photographing a narrow purple ribbon of light and calling it a proton arc. In 2016 one of the admins, Chris Ratzlaff, proposed calling it Steve, after the film Over the Hedge. University of Calgary physicist Eric Donovan matched the photos to data from the European Space Agency’s Swarm satellites, and the 2018 paper in Science Advances kept the name as a backronym: Strong Thermal Emission Velocity Enhancement.
FAQ
Can you see the northern lights from downtown Calgary?
Only when a storm is big enough. In those storms people have posted photos taken inside the city. Most of the time the display is a faint glow low in the north that the downtown lights wash out, so the usual move is to drive north onto the farmland beyond the ring road, where the horizon is flat and dark within half an hour.
Where do people in Calgary go to watch the northern lights?
North of the city towards Airdrie and Cochrane for a flat dark horizon, or east to the badlands around Drumheller, 110 km away, where photos have been taken in big storms. Nose Hill Park works for a quick look inside the city if the display is bright. For live reports, the Alberta Aurora Chasers group on Facebook is where local photographers post as it happens.
What is STEVE and what does it have to do with Calgary?
STEVE is a narrow purple ribbon of light that appears near the aurora. Members of the Alberta Aurora Chasers Facebook group had been photographing it for years, and in 2016 one of the group's admins, Chris Ratzlaff, proposed the name Steve, after the film Over the Hedge. University of Calgary physicist Eric Donovan then matched the photos to satellite data, and the 2018 paper in Science Advances kept the name as Strong Thermal Emission Velocity Enhancement.
Is the Rothney Astrophysical Observatory open for aurora watching?
Not as a drop-in. The University of Calgary observatory near Priddis, south-west of the city, is only open to the public during scheduled programmes. The Ann and Sandy Cross Conservation Area nearby is a Royal Astronomical Society of Canada Nocturnal Preserve, but it is day-use only. For the aurora itself, any dark road in that open country south-west of Calgary gives the same sky.
When is the best time to see the northern lights in Calgary?
The nights in Calgary are dark all year. The aurora is rare in Calgary: your best chances are in September and October. The longest nights, around 21 December, have about 13 hours of darkness.
Can you see the northern lights in Calgary in summer?
Yes. The nights in Calgary are dark all year, so the aurora can show in summer too when it reaches this far south.
What Kp index do I need to see the northern lights in Calgary?
In Calgary, you usually need at least Kp 5 to have a reasonable chance of seeing the northern lights. Lower Kp can still bring a faint aurora display low on the northern horizon, but it is less common.
This is based on magnetic latitude, and Kp index is a global geomagnetic index, so treat it as a rule of thumb, not a location-specific guarantee.
Tonight, the NOAA Kp index forecast is 1.3 to 1.7. That is below the usual Kp index threshold for Calgary, so seeing the aurora is unlikely.